“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

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November 17, 2016

Getting New Ideas for Video Games (Part 1)

A Springboard for Video Game Developers

Creating video games is an art, no doubt.
The problem is that it isn’t easy to come up with ideas for video games. And
even when we do get an idea, it doesn’t seem as fresh or exciting as we want it
to be. The following offers a few ways you can generate some creative ideas to
keep your video game as fun to play from beginning to end.

1. Make it funny. Humor has a wonderful way
of transforming the seemingly dreadful boring into something that’s not only
tolerable, but engaging as well. And if boredom is an illness, laughter is its
cure. If you can inject jokes, funny imagery, or goofy characters into your
game, your players will relax and associate your game with good feelings – a
definite formula for success.

2. Let your mind wander off the beaten
path. Since much of our thinking is associative anyway, there’s no reason why
you couldn’t manifest this association into your video game. When one idea
makes you think of another, include it as part of a video game no matter how
illogical the connection is (at first). Remember that video games are your
platform for creativity. It’s time to be a little wild and a little
unconventional. Without this free-form thinking, we surely wouldn't have the
creative gems that we have today. You can always restore a sense of logic back
into the game at an appropriate time.

3. Make your dreams come true. Literally,
turn your dreams into video game scenarios. Had a nightmare lately? Include the
scary thing in the game. Had a ridiculously stupid dream lately? Include it in
the game as a detour or distraction. Sometimes dreams can be more interesting
as life, and as a video game developer, you want your games to be the same.
Keep a dream journal and write down those bizarre experiences you have at
night. Your gamers will thank you for it.

4. Copy nature. Let’s be honest - Nature is
pretty weird. We have bees flying around and pollinating plants. We have water
evaporating into the sky and then falling down from clouds as rain. Childbirth
is a strange phenomenon itself, and germs – the smallest thing on the planet
can bring down a herd of elephants. If you could emulate some of this crazy
stuff in your own video games, you will have done what every man secretly
wishes he could do himself. And that’s take nature into your own hands and
shape it into the reality you want! But don’t copy nature faithfully. Twist it
around. For example, instead of bees flying around and pollinating plants, your
video game could have 3-inch aliens flying around and pollinating brainwashed
FBI agents. Starting to get the idea?

5. Dig into History. Another good resource
for video game material is our own history – but not the boring stuff. We’re
talking about the good stuff. The embarrassing stuff. Look for odd and weird
news online and include the asinine things that people have done in the past as
part of your game’s plot. Your players won’t believe what they’re seeing!

6. Go Metaphor Happy. Metaphors are
figures of speech in which expressions are used to refer to
something that it does not literally denote. It simply suggests a
similarity. We’re not sure, but we’re
pretty convinced that a lot of the space ships in video games are based on what
we call the “nuts and bolts” metaphor. If you look closely at the designs of
some of these vehicles, and then look at some of the tools you have in your
toolbox, you’ll start to see a similarity among the two like we did. You can do
the same in your video games to come up with some really unique imagery and
situations.